A controversial British scientist claims to have found 'proof' that aliens exist - after cracking open a lump of rock which he believes fell to earth in a meteorite shower.

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, formerly of Cardiff University, claims the two-inch wide lump of space rock is pitted with microscopic seaweed fossils similar to those found on Earth.

'These finds are crushing evidence that human life started from outside our Earth,' said the professor, who is notorious for his theories that life on this planet was 'seeded' from outer space.

Claims: Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe with the fragment of space rock

Teeming with traces of life? A controversial scientist claims this two-inch meteor fragment is packed with the fossils of extraterrestrial life similar to algae found in Earth's oceans

HOW DID THEY ACQUIRE IT?

'We got it from the medical research institute in Sri Lanka,' Professor Wickramasinghe told MailOnline.

'They got hold of it on the 29th December, when a fireball was seen in the area.

'Thousands
of people spotted it, and minutes after there was a meteorite fall over
a rice field.

'Farmers who rushed to pick up these stones had
their hands burnt, and women fainted, so local medical staff and police
were summoned to cordon off the area to collect the stones.

'One of these was
sent to us by colleagues.'

'We
are all aliens - we share a cosmic ancestry,' he said.

'Each time a
new planetary system forms a few surviving microbes find their way into
comets.

'These then multiply and seed other planets.

'These latest finds are just more evidence to point to the overwhelming fact that life on Earth began on other worlds.'

'Our provisional assessment is that it was part of a comet', he told MailOnline.

'The stones look extremely unusual, and have a porous structure, with a lower density than anything we have on Earth.'

Professor Wickramasinghe's claims are outlined in a
freely accessible paper on the website of the Journal of Cosmology.

It says 'a few percent carbon as revealed by analysis confirms the status of a carbonaceous meteorite.'

However, today he admitted key tests to prove it is an uncontaminated meteorite have not yet been carried out.

'This
was a rapid publication - we wanted to provoke interest, and we will be
publishing in a peer reviewed journal, but we are not sure which yet one.

'It is the facts that will prove this - and we hope to have conclusive proof within weeks.'

However, a string of experts have already lined up to dismiss his claims as 'laughable' and argue that the apparent extra-terrestrial fossils are clearly present as the result of contamination here on Earth.

Another points out that it has yet to be proven that the rock is actually from space at all.

'Describing it as laughable is a natural reaction, that is the traditional view, and until all of these tests are completed, these criticisms are out there,' he said.

The research alleges that 'microscopic fossilized diatoms (a basic form of algae) were found in the
sample', which fell in Sri Lanka in December last year.

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The
finding, it suggests, is a 'strong evidence to support the theory of
cometary panspermia' - the idea that life across planets is spread on
rocks hurtling through space.

The still-smoking meteorite fragments were picked up by villagers in central Sri Lanka after they crashed to Earth in a spectacular fireball, it is claimed.

They were analysed in a British laboratory where fossils of algae were apparently found.

It is claimed the finds are similar to micro-organisms found in fossil remains from the dinosaur age 55million years ago.

Smoking gun? This scanning electron microscope image purports to show the tell-tale sign of a microscopic fossil

'Crushing evidence': It is claimed the fossilised micro-organisms found in the fragment are similar to those found in fossil remains from the dinosaur age 55million years ago

From far, far away: The two-inch wide piece of meteorite was found near a village a few miles from the city of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka

A mathematician by training,
Professor Wickramasinghe believes that life on Earth was seeded by
comets and asteroids 3.8billion years ago.

A CONTROVERSIAL ACADEMIC

Chandra Wickramasinghe is notorious as the only scientist to argue against evolution during the 1981 Arkansas legal case against the teaching of creationism in schools.

The 74-year-old Sri Lankan-born British mathematician obtained a PhD from Cambridge under the supervision of the late Sir Fred Hoyle.

The pair went on to collaborate on a body of work some credit with providing the basis of the field of astrobiology.

Their joint work on the infrared spectra of interstellar grains led to developing the hypothesis of panspermia, which proposes that cosmic dust in space and comets is partly organic - and may have 'seeded' life on Earth.

They further contended that extraterrestrial life forms continue to enter the Earth's atmosphere, and may be responsible for epidemic outbreaks, new diseases, and the genetic novelty necessary for macroevolution.

In 2003 he was joint signatory on a letter sent to The Lancet which suggested that the virus which causes SARS may not come from chickens, but could in fact be from outer space.

He was head of Cardiff University's Centre for Astrobiology until two years ago, when funding was withdrawn and he was dismissed from his post.

He also believes that pathogens like the SARS virus arrived here from deep space.

He was head of Cardiff University's
Centre for Astrobiology until two years ago when funding for the
department was withdrawn and he was dismissed from his post.

The
controversial professor, the only scientist to testify against
evolution in the famous 1981 creationist trial in Arkansas, has since
carried on the project as a private company and charity.

He
said: 'The algae organisms are similar to ones found in Earth fossils
but the rock also has other organisms we have not identified.'

Astronomer and lecturer Phil Plait wrote in his blog on Slatethat the chemical analysis presented in Wickramasinghe's study 'doesn’t prove it’s a carbonaceous chondrite, let alone a meteorite,' and there is 'no reason to trust that what they have is a meteorite.'

Plait also cited a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Patrick Kociolek as saying that there was no sign that the diatoms illustrated in the study were 'fossilized material', and that most of them were species that represented 'a clear case of contamination with freshwater'.

Monica Grady, professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University’s Faculty of Science, told MailOnline she finds the whole thing ‘laughable’.

‘There are serious inconsistencies with the data presented in the paper,' she said.

‘The most important is that the rock they have found is yet to be proven to be a meteorite.

‘Until that is done, no credence can be placed on the findings presented, especially when they are published in a non-mainstream journal.'

Controversial: Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, left, says the still-smoking rocks were found after they fell in Sri Lanka, right, after a dramatic meteor shower

THE PANSPERMIA HYPOTHESIS

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe is a leading proponent of panspermia, the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe and is spread by meteoroids, asteroids and planetoids.

Panspermia proposes that life forms that can survive the effects of space, such as extremophiles, become trapped in debris that is ejected into space after collisions between asteroids and planets that harbour life.

These life-forms may travel dormant for an extended amount of time before colliding randomly with other planets or intermingling with protoplanetary disks.

If met with ideal conditions on a new planet's surfaces, the bacteria become active and the process of evolution begins, it is believed.

Professor
Wickramasinghe, 74, claims microbes from outer space arrived on our
planet from comets which then 'multiplied and seeded' to form our life.

The two-inch wide piece of meteorite was found near a village a few miles from the city of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka.

The fragments were said to be still smoking when they were found by woman villagers.

They were sent to Cardiff University's School of Earth Sciences where they were examined under a scanning electron microscope.

Professor
Wickramasinghe, who is originally from Sri Lanka, and his late
colleague Sir Fred Hoyle championed the 'life from outer space' theory
from the 1960s.

He said:
'Evidence from astronomy overwhelmingly supports the view that life did
not start on Earth but was seeded from outside.'